Recycling the "Jewish Question"

The question of "the Jewish problem" in West Germany today is addressed following the televising of the drama "Holocaust." It is argued that the anti-Semitism that emerged during the Nazi regime was not due to any deep-seated hatred of the Jews themselves, but to the need for the Nazis to homogenize German society. Once this homogenization had taken place, capitalism could be promoted & social reform implemented. A scrutiny of the Frankfurt school's theory of anti-Semitism, particularly the views of Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno, shows the main concern being the destruction of the individual in a bureaucratic society. Anti-Semitism is given prominence due to the climate of the times, & not to a deep-rooted sense of Jewishness on the part of these men. It is asserted that bureaucracy today is attempting to bring back ethnic identity in order to give itself something over which it must regulate. Thus, the Jewish question of today is essentially the same fight for individuality that it was in the 1940s. E. Diamond.